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Tuesday, July 03, 2007

LIBBY'S OFF THE HOOK

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby will not be going to federal prison. As Claude Rains said in the classic 1942 film, Casablanca, "I'm shocked. Shocked"!

That the man would never see a single day in the slammer has been pretty much a foregone conclusion since the day he was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice late last winter. The Bush Mob has always seen itself as above the law and not subject to the same rules that you and I are forced to play by. But now their arrogance is coming back to haunt them - with a vengeance. This White House is, at this very moment, in the process of crumbling like a house of marked cards. If the summer of 2007 is remembered for anything, it will be the utter destruction of the Bush administration. Yippee!.There is another reason - a very big reason - why Dick Cheney's former chief of staff won't be heading to the Big House: He knows where ALLof the bodies are buried! As politically explosive as the presidential commutation is, it belies the fact that Bush has dodged a particularly nasty bullet: Scooter Libby (for the time being, anyway) won't be talking. How convenient..From the First Fool's written statement:"I respect the jury's verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison".How touching. Remember that this is the same George W. Bush who, as governor of Texas, refused to even consider the commutation of the sentences of even one of the one-hundred and fifty-two death row inmates who died under his watch - some of them whose guilt was questionable, and a number of whom were severely retarded. The 2000 presidential campaign was on the horizon and he just had to prove to the neanderthals who tend to vote in Republican primaries that he was "tough on crime". In a 1999 interview with Tucker Carlson, Bush mocked the recently executed Karla Faye Tucker. Quivering his lower lip he mimicked the poor woman, "Please don't kill me, Mr. Bush". Carlson, as he later noted, was appalled by the performance.Who wouldn't be?

And keep this in mind: of the slightly over one-thousand human beings who have been murdered by the state since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty thirty years ago, almost fifteen percent of those executions occurred in the state of Texas during the eight year period that George W. Bush served as governor. There's "compassionate conservatism" for ya!Another no-brainer in this whole disgusting affair is the fact that Libby was covering up the misdeeds of Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. It all began with the State of the Union speech that the village idiot of Crawford, Texas delivered to the American people in January of 2003. Those famous sixteen words should someday be etched into the marble of the future Operation Iraqi "Freedom" Memorial Wall:

" The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa".

It was a lie. Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction Program (such as it might have been at one time) was kaput and the administration knew it. Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson had been sent on a mission to Niger by Cheney's office to try and find out what (if anything) Saddam had tried to acquire. When he came back with a report that stated, unequivocally, that the reports had been bogus (citing alleged documents with the signatures of Nigerian officials who had been out of office for over a decade) he was ignored. They were determined - come what may - to seize what is generally regarded to be the second or third largest oil reserves on the planet consequences be damned. Six months after Bush's infamous sixteen words, and four months following the stupidest foreign policy blunder in American history (the invasion of - like it or not - thesovereign nation of Iraq), Wilson wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times called, "What I Didn't Find in Niger", which exposed the administration's Iraq policy for what it was: a scam. So what did Cheney, Rove, Libby and company do? They did what all real men do when confronted with so intimidating a foe. They went after the guy's wife. Why on earth they believed that it would help their cause to expose the identity of covert CIA agent, Valerie Plaime Wilson, may forever remain a mystery of the ages. Was there some kind of strategic advantage to be gained by outting Ms. Wilson that most of us just aren't perceptive enough to see? Or might it be something as simple as the nagging suspicion that I have harbored from the outset: that these people are dumber than dog shit.

Just a friendly reminder: As of this morning the total number of dead American soldiers in the Neo-Conflict (my name for this stupid fucking war) is at 3,586. The number of dead Iraqi men, women and little children? At least half a million.Undoubtedly Scooter Libby will eventually be given a full, complete and unconditional pardon by Bush. As the clock ticks away during the final hours of this disgusting administration, the man that so huge a segment of the American people were foolish enough to send to the White House will be pardoning every criminal in his employ. Every criminal - that is - with the exception of George W. Bush! A president, you see, is legally unable to pardon himself. I wonder if Alberto Gonzalez has even bothered to explain this to him yet?Pray for peace.Tom DeganGoshen, NY(845) 294-5714tomdegan@frontiernet.netSpecial thanks to Kurt Hornick of Poughkeepsie, NY for the "Get Out of Jail Free" card.

10 Comments:

This is certainly no more than some of us have come to expect from this bunch of crooks, liars and thieves. The time has come when all of us need to stop preaching to the choir, writing and responding to postings here, at Alternet and other places, and begin harassing our elected senators and representatives to get off of their asses and get these thugs out of office while we still have a country that has a degree of freedom left.

If we do not take immediate action to remove all of these criminals from office, there is not going to be another election and we will be stuck with these kooks until America is destroyed either from within or by another country. Hitler's Germany is beginning to look good by comparison.

I agree with your view, Tom, and also your's CM.The one point that some have missed, to GDub's credit, is that he acted in a much more timely manner than he did in the events of Katrina. During both "emergencies" the dictator was taking a rest from his "duties".He mulled for four days before responding to the needs of the people of New Orleans (heckuvajob, Brownie), while this time around, when one of his loyal soldiers needed immediate rescue, he acted decisively. Unfortunately, justice has been stood on her head, but what do we expect from the guy who gave us Gonzo?Also, I think the comparison with canine fecal matter might be a bit to harsh, as it insults the quality of canine fecal matter.

I think, Tom, that the whole outing of Valerie Plame was a revenge act on Wilson. They were hoping she would be killed/maimed by one of her undercover contacts and of course it was a powerful message to Wilson. They hadn't counted on his courage in the face of this by going public. I salute your constant faith that these thugalugs will be flushed.I, however, am not as hopeful now that the Dems stand once more cap-in-hand letting massah get away with yet one more flagrant F*** the people.

Picture Bush and Cheney standing side by side, leering at the camera,with snide looks on their faces, giving the finger to the American people. This, ladies and gentlemen, is YOUR executive branch at work. Oh, excuse me, I forgot that VP Cheney has his own branch, with a swastika as its symbol. These men dont give a rat's ass about public opinion, legal opinion, world opinion,human decency, justice, truth, or their hideous example to society. Their dog and pony show is almost over; their poll numbers in the pits; their secret offshore bank accounts bursting at the seams; their playgrounds ready in Dubai and Paraguay; so "Screw all of you." And, screw us they will, again and again, until the last thug turns off the lights. Congress, the MSM, and far too many of the sheeple still labor under the illusion that Bush and Cheney may not behave nicely or fairly, but they are, after all, wealthy, powerful, rational men. When you examine their patterns of behavior, that does not prove true. But, people kling tenaciously to their illusions. This is dangerous, very dangerous, at this point. There are no real constraints on Bush and Cheney. Congress cant do much more than send out subpoenas, which Bush/Cheney promptly and maliciously ignore. The AG's office is run by a fellow mob member, their Consiglieri. The Supreme Court is tilted so far to the fanatic right, it has stopped functioning as part of a healthy system of justice, and is now a rubberstamp for Far Right Felonies.Two elections were handily stolen. The Republicans are planning, as we speak, to steal a third. Electronic voting machines are everywhere. No paper trail. Easy to hack. Voter suppression is de rigeur in key states. We are up shit crick without a paddle. Still, I have not given up all hope. I call, I write, I e-mail, I sign petitions. EVERYDAY. All of you who read this MUST do the same. It might, it just might strike a chord of fear in a few legislators. It might awaken a few decent men and women and spur them on to action. It might make a Nancy Pelosi think twice about HER reputation. Be an Aristotelian gadfly and keep on stinging the party hacks, the complacent, the weak and faint-of-heart. If the numbers grow by the day, at the very least, they cannot ignore us. They will be discomfited. They have tried to rule us by fear. Turn the tables on them. If we remain silent, we deserve what we get. Join Move-On, Act-for-Change, etc. I am sure Tom has a list. I do. Bush and Cheney are not in crisis. They dont give a damn. But, Congress needs a bigger fire flaming under them. Light it.And ask your friends to do the same.

Thanks again Tom, for putting the truth out here for all to see, even though it seems hopeless. For if we don't get off our collective behinds, and TAKE BACK OUR NATION beginning today, our children have less than a chance to enjoy the freedoms most of us have taken for granted.

These people give less than a damn about what ANYONE thinks, they're in charge for the moment, and think they have the power to override any check or balance afforded us by the constitution. What was the famous remark about the Constitution being just a G**D****d peice of paper? Truth or rumor, their actions speak louder than any words, or has anyone been watching?

Like others here, and other posts, I'm doing my level best to do my little part to put a stop to this raping and pillaging of my beloved nation. I send e-mails, make calls, write letters to every elected official I can find. I send these petitions to everyone in my address book, with a short note daring them to step up and do something, encouraging them to notify all their friends and associates. There is a strength in numbers, we just have to get the numbers large enough to make a difference.

As you mentioned in the close of your article today, who's going to pardon Bush? That's the big flaw in this entire scheme, who's gonna cover for Bush? He might think he's beyond the reach of the law, but that's not the truth. If we raise enough hell and light an inferno under Congress, the legislative branch had better pull out all the stops and clean house, or they're going to be consigned to the same scrap heap that these crooks are headed for!

But We The People, had better stop sitting on the sidelines, waiting for "Someone Else," to do our heavy lifting, and get busy being the citizen we so proudly claim to be. The average citizen cares less about the details of good governance, they just form opinions based upon the latest sound bites the've managed to stop and listen to, and take this scant knowledge(?) into the voting booth. And this is by the paltry percentage of the registered voters that even bother to vote!!

Yes, America, we're standing at a crossroad we had never imagined to see, but we brought this upon ourselves by being too busy to take the time to become involved in a proper way. We MUST get every person elegible to vote, to do just that, register and vote. We MUST begin to share what we know with others in our groups, even to the extent of printing materials from online, and passing them out to others that have no knowledge of what we read and reply to on a daily basis. We MUST take an ACTIVE role, and stop waiting for "Someone Else," to do what we should be doing ourselves.

We have given this administration all the leeway they needed to pull this off, but it's not too late to bring them to a halt. They are relying upon the hope that the populace is just too relaxed, and comfortable with the status quo to bother with stopping them, and they'll just run out the clock, and retire to their villas, etc with no apparent concerns for the future.

Agreed with it all, obviously. I just wanted to say that I am amazed at the intelligence and the integrity of the commentary of this blog. It is heartening to know that there are still people left who care so much for their country.

I think supporting the impeach Cheney initiative is a good start. Who knows? The ensuing investigation might stir the proverbial enough to bring their crimes to the attention of the MSM - Mind-numbingly Stupid Media.